MAY 2018 Fresh out of an amazing double win at the Brand and Lifestyle Licensing Awards (B&LLA’s) in April, we are head down in preparation for our next round of overseas supplier visits. The win was for our innovative collaboration with The Military Wives Choirs, in producing a range of home and fashion accessories to help fund the charity in its endeavours to support the families of our military personnel, and the way in which we executed the delivery of this range in store

Arriving in the murky, wet greyness of a hot and steamy Sunday evening in Dhaka, my senses are as usual, assaulted by the sights, sounds and smells of a very different culture from the London I left behind. Having negotiated our way through immigration, and collected our luggage in a surprisingly organised and speedy fashion, we step out into the cacophony of sound that is thousands of people, traffic and constantly beeping horns. The sheer volume of people everywhere I look

Well, that was one hell of a trip! It started with an early morning departure from Heathrow, travelling with three of my colleagues, first destination Bangalore, India, where none of them had ever been before. This was going to be something of a baptism of fire – India is always a bit of a culture shock to the uninitiated, and we needed to hit the ground running! Having spent all day travelling, via a short stop in Dubai, suddenly it was the next morning (courtesy of a five a

It’s been a while since my last post (this sounds like I am about to confess my sins, which I am not!), and a great deal has happened over the last few months, not all of it easy to write about. My year to date has been overshadowed by the illness of my father, who subsequently passed away in July, leaving me feeling bereft and unable to put pen to paper until now. The death of a parent, for those who have not yet experienced it, can have a profound effect on your outlook on

Arriving in Delhi in the early hours of Wednesday morning, we bunch of weary travellers were greeted by the stifling heat and a missing bag! Cue lots of arm waving and pigeon English as we tried to locate said bag – it had exploded out of its zip in transit and been transformed in a disguise of Emirates plastic wrapping. Bag located, we made our way out to the waiting cars to be transported to………….paradise! Never, in all my years of buying trips, have I stayed in a hotel quit

Leaving home on Sunday afternoon, I had a very odd feeling that this was going to be an eventful trip; if only I’d known just how eventful! It was destined to be a very busy few days! Having made it through security at Heathrow in record time, the five of us from the kids wear team met for a sandwich and a little therapeutic shopping, before boarding our flight to Istanbul. The flight itself was busy but uneventful, but I have to ask, why are British Airways stewardesses alwa

We had just over a week to recover from the exertions of Bangladesh, and then we were off again, this time further afield, to Hong Kong, and then on to either Indonesia or Sri Lanka. Under normal circumstances I would have tried to squeeze all this into one trip, but the thought of being away for almost a full three weeks without a break was too much, even for me. Leaving home on a Sunday evening, for a 12 hour direct flight to Hong Kong, I was again realising that I seem to

Leaving home at 5.30am on Sunday morning, to meet the buyer and designer travelling with me at the airport, I was clear in the knowledge that this was going to be a long and tiring week. What I hadn’t really taken into consideration was how many laughs we would have along the way! It’s this that keeps you going on one of these trips, when the lack of sleep, the long days, occasional bouts of Dhaka belly, and the endless hours spent in the car feel like they might tip you over

Yet again, just when we think we’re making great strides forward, catastrophe strikes! This time in the form of a key supplier who has suddenly decided that they are not going to make garments any more (it’s too complicated and simply weaving the fabric and selling it on to other manufacturers is considerably easier to manage!) and we have several large orders due out of this particular factory over the next few weeks. Cue a great deal of heated debate about what they will an